Corner construction for a chick box



July 22, 1958 A. M. WHlTNEY, 2,844,293

CORNER CONSTRUCTION FOR A CHICK Box Filed Feb. 17, 1955 ANTHONY MURDOCK WHITNEY mmvrox,

i MM/ United States Patent '0 coRNE CONSTRUCTIDN. FOR A. CHICK BOX .Anfliony Murdock Whitney, Winchendon, Mass, assignor to New- England Wooden Ware Corporation, Winchendon, Mass., a corporation of Massachusetts- Application February 17, 1955,.Srial No. 488,854

2 Clajms.- (CL 229'--6) shipment; and secondly, the boxes must be sufiiciently strong so as to prevent their collapsing when they are piled one upon the other, otherwise, the chicks would be crushed in transit.

To meet the first requirement, present-day chick boxes are provided with ventilating holes along the .vertical sides of the box and over the top of the cover. To meet the second requirement, the conventional chick box is suitably reinforced, preferably at the corners, so as to provide a more rigid construction. Also, it is conventional to extend the corners of these boxes upwardly above the level of the cover so that, when the next box is placed thereupon, a space will be provided between the cover of each box and the bottom of the next higher box. This latter provision will give an added ventilation feature to each stack of boxes.

The present invention, as hereinafter described, provides a chick box of one-piece construction which meets the above-mentioned requirements by means of integral corner posts that are two-dimensional in cross-section both above and below the box top, so as to give adequate support to any superposed boxes, and to resist collapse under the weight thereof.

Other and further objects and advantageous features of my invention will hereinafter more fully appear in connection with a detailed description of the drawings, in which Fig. 1 is a perspective view of my box with part of the cover broken away.

Fig. 2 is a plan view of a portion of the blank from which my box is made. The portion of the blank shown here is adapted to be folded to form the foreground corner of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a plan view of the blank portion shown in Fig. 2 after it has been folded into a corner.

Fig. 4 is a front view taken from Fig. 3.

Fig. 5 is a right-hand end view of Fig. 3.

Referring to the drawings in detail, in Fig. 1 there is shown a rectangular box body 1 and a cover 2, the latter being broken away to reveal the usual interfitting partitions 3 and 4, which cross at right angles to form four compartments within the box. Upstanding corner posts 5, 6, 7 and 8 of triangular cross section, and formed integrally from the box material, as described hereinafter, project upwardly through appropriate holes 9 in the cover. The cover and sides of the box are suitably perforated, as shown at 10, 10 in Fig. 1.

Fig. 2 shows one of the four corners of the one piece flat substantially rectangular blank 11, for the box body 1 of Fig. 1. This blank corner has been suitably cut and I 2,844,293 7 Patented July 22, 195.8

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- provided with. the necessary score lines or creases for forming one of the integralcorner posts of thebox 1. In Fig. 2, are shown score lines 12 and 13, which bound the, rectangular box bottom 14, and 011% which. are foldedup: wardly the respective i-ntegral long sides 151,15 andthe respective integral ends 1'6, 16- of the completed. box. A slit 1'] separates the long side 15 from. a. specially-constructed right-hand flap portion 18 of the end.16.. Since the crease 12 extends across end 16 as at 19, theflap 18 can be bent with respectztorend 16. V I

As is. also apparent from Fig'. 2, flap 18 is wider in verticalv extent than the left-hand vertical widthof end- 1 6. The right-hand portion of the end 16 immediately to the left of the crease 19 is of the same width as flap 18. Between; the wide and narrow portions of the end 16 is a vertical notch: 20.

Another slit. 21 extends along a vertical line located between one-quarter and one-third of the. distance. from crease 19 to' the right-hand edge of the flap. This slit 21 extends downwardly from; the slit. 17 for about two-thirds of the width of flap 18. From the bottom end of the slit 21, a crease 22 extends co-linear with this slit to the bottom edge of the flap. At the bottom end of slit 21, another crease 23 extends horizontally to the right-hand edge of the flap. Half-way between crease 23 and slit 17, another crease 24 extends horizontally from slit 21 to the right-hand edge of the flap 18. These creases 22, 23 and 24., together with slits 17 and 21 and crease 19, mark off flap 18 into the areas labelled as 25, 26, 27 and 28; these latter areas are so labelled to aid in the description of the folding operation.

Now in order to fold the blank of Fig. 2 to form the corner 5 of Fig. 1, section 25 is folded along crease 24 so that it is superimposed on section 26. The combined sections 25 and 26 are folded along crease 23 so that they cover section 27. The back face of section 26 will be facing upward.

Now the triple thickness of sections 25, 26 and 27 is End 16 is folded along crease 13 towards bottom 14 so I that the end is at right angles to the bottom. Side 15 is similarly folded along crease 12 to form another right angle. The foremost end of side 15 should now be fiat against portion 28 of the flap 18. The corner may now be secured by putting one or more staples as shown at 30, Fig. l through side 15 and section 28.

Now, if above outlined procedure is followed for each of the four corners, the body of the box will be complete. The box itself will be made of cardboard, preferably the corrugated type, and, in the illustrations shown here, the corrugations in the side 16, as well as the corner posts, will be vertical, so as to afford the greatest strength at the corners.

In Figs. 2 to 5 inclusive the ventilation holes 10 have been omitted for the sake of simplicity, butit should be understood that the blank form 11 is suitably perforated so as to provide a completed box similar to that shown in Fig. l.

When the shell of the box has been assembled, the

blank. Since the corners are integral with the body proper of the box, no separate corner parts are required. These features are particularly important where the boxes condition for subsequent assembly by the purchased. In the case of my box, only four separate parts are required for each box; that is, the body proper, the cover and the two partitions.

Although the container illustrated and described herein has been referred to primarily as a chick box, it should be realized that the novel features disclosed herein are applicable to other suitable containers used for diflerent purposes. My invention has been described with particular reference to the embodiment illustrated in the drawings. However, it should be apparent that this invention admits of other and obvious forms apart from those shown.

I claim:

1. A one-piece chick box providing integral corner posts higher than the box sides for the spacing above its top of another'superimposed box, said box comprising a rectangular bottom, four integral side walls rising from the respective edges of said bottom at right angles thereto, and connected to each other at their adjoining terminal portions to provide the four corners of said box, the construction at each box corner comprising a first side wall whose proximate vertical edge is approximately alined with said box corner, a second side wall having its proximate terminal portion substantially higher than said first side wall, and having an integral lengthwise extension of substantially the same increased height which is folded inwardly at right angles on the line of said box corner and attached to the inside proximate surface of saidfirst side wall, the upper edge of said second side wall, substantially at the beginning of its higher terminal portion, being formed with a narrow vertical notch, and the upper portion of said integral extension having a free flap extension bent backwardly, crosswise of said box corner, and entered in said notch, thereby to form with the other right angled upper edges of said higher terminal portion an integral corner post of substantially triangular cross section.

2. A one-piece chick box as claimed in claim 1, wherein said free flap extension of the attached flap of the second side Wall consists of a plurality of prefolded thicknesses of the box material, whose tendency to spring to unfolded condition creates a holding friction with the sides of said vertical notch.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 

